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Lions expected to name Franklin coach at news conference today

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associated press file
All signs indicate Vanderbilt coach James Franklin, center, will be named Penn State's next football coach today.

The James Franklin era at Penn State is expected to begin today.

The university has scheduled a press conference at Beaver Stadium for 4:15 p.m. to make a "major announcement," and all signs point to that announcement being the introduction of Franklin as the 16th coach in Nittany Lions' history.

University president Dr. Rodney Erickson and athletic director Dr. David Joyner will be on hand to make the announcement, according to a press release from Penn State's sports communications office. The release makes no mention of what the announcement will be about, nor does it indicate Franklin, the ebullient Vanderbilt coach, will be on hand. But the evidence is overwhelming that it will be his day.

Various national media outlets are reporting Franklin and Penn State already have agreed on a contract that will pay him around $4.5 million a year, about $700,000 more than former coach Bill O'Brien pulled in last season before leaving the Nittany Lions to become head coach of the NFL's Houston Texans last week.

The compensation committee of the Penn State Board of Trustees will meet at 8:30 this morning, and it is expected it will ratify the contract. After that, Franklin is expected to formally accept the contract and the job.

The Tennessean reported late Friday that Vanderbilt is holding a team meeting at 9 a.m. today, where Franklin is expected to address players and assistant coaches.

As Penn State prepared to move into the future, Vanderbilt tried its best to cling to the present.

University athletic director David Williams and several of the school's biggest boosters had a meeting with Franklin on Friday afternoon in Nashville, hoping to keep him at the helm with a last-minute Hail Mary offer, according to The Tennessean.

John Ingram, whom the newspaper describes as one of Vanderbilt's "most generous donors and influential people," told The Tennessean "we're fighting hard to keep James, and we're going to do everything that we can to do that. These situations don't age well for anybody. I think the coach needs to make a decision. ... We certainly look forward to an opportunity to reiterate to James how much we'd like him to stay."

Meanwhile, not everyone at Penn State was anxiously awaiting Franklin's expected arrival.

Communications professor Michelle Rodino-Colocino addressed a petition to the coaching search committee, asking them not to consider Franklin for the job because of allegations that he attempted to cover up a rape incident involving four players at Vanderbilt last summer.

Those four players have been charged for the incident, and a fifth has pled guilty to helping cover it up. All five were kicked off the team immediately by Franklin, who was cleared of any wrongdoing in the case by a district attorney.

A trial of the four accused players is scheduled to begin in August.

The petition from Rodino-Colocino urged the search committee to take the fact there hasn't been a trial into consideration, and to factor into any decision what the negative publicity of something about Franklin coming out during that trial would have on the university.

Franklin emerged as the leading candidate to replace O'Brien during an interview process that reportedly included at least four other candidates - University of Miami coach Al Golden, San Francisco 49ers offensive coordinator Greg Roman, Scranton native and former Tennessee Titans head coach Mike Munchak, and longtime Penn State assistant coach Larry Johnson. On Wednesday, Penn State officials including Erickson and Joyner flew to Florida for Franklin's second interview. It was at this time a job offer was extended to him, Times-Shamrock has reported.

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